The newspaper “Kathimerini” presents the timeline of events on the day of the deadly fire in eastern Attica, as it was recorded by the Police HQ’s radio system.

It all started on the afternoon of July 23, 2018, ten minutes before five. There was a call regarding smoke on the area of Drafi. For about few minutes there was the impression that the smoke was coming from the other great fire that had preceded that day in West Attica, at Kineta.

At 17:43′ a police officer informs the HQ:
“There is a serious problem with smoke in Neos Voutsas, there is no visibility and there are no fire brigades to inform them to come here. (…) It is essential for forces to come to Neos Voutsas -many and especially from the west- to ascend here“.

At 18:18′:25” a police officer radios:
“The fire came down to Marathon“. A few minutes later a signal is given to the police forces to divert traffic away from the area. The fire has come to homes and police is being ordered not to allow anyone to approach Marathon.

At 19:27′:59” a policeman who had undertaken to divert traffic as the fire burned down the Kokkino Limanaki and the Mati sounded extremely upset at the radio:
“We have left our position, we can not divert, our physical integrity is in danger, all of these people have homes there, we can not divert traffic, they will run us over!“.

At 22:14′:48” the first impression about the magnitude of the disaster is communicated to the Police HQ. A police officer reports that about 30 cars have been burned in Kokkino Limanaki and about 800 people are trapped on the beach.

About one and a half hours later, at 23:47′:55” police forces are alerted to go to Panos Street in Neos Voutsas. They inform them that there are E10 incidents from the fire. Code E10 means “corpse found”.

The Prosecutor’s Office has completed the investigation into the fire in eastern Attica and he is expected to press charges.